


Night Shift

by opalmatrix



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Comfort, Cuddling and Snuggling, Established Relationship, Horror, M/M, Nightmares, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:29:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, all that stands between Hakkai and his inner darkness is a pair of cold hands and a warm heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by **[sanada](http://sanada.livejournal.com/)** and **[smillaraaq](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Smillaraaq)**. Takes places well after Be There and Burial, probably very shortly before the Journey West begins. (Written February 2008)

It had been a good night, a very good night, with the other players flush with cash and enthusiasm. When Gojyo had said his farewells, it had been 3:00 a.m., and he'd had at least five beers (he'd lost track, because it had seemed more important to count cards than to count beers) and a congratulatory shot of whiskey from the barkeep, who appreciated the amount of drinking everyone had done. He'd come home, pockets bulging with other men's cash, to find Hakkai asleep, as usual on these late nights, and had crawled in beside him. Hakkai had wakened just enough to put his arms around his night-owl buddy, and then Gojyo had tumbled headlong into the smug, snug sleep that awaits a successful gambling man at the end of a hard run.

It couldn't have been much more than an hour later that Gojyo found himself inexplicably awake, and missing the sexy pair of women whose company he'd been keeping in his dreams. He never dreamed about Hakkai, because Hakkai was always right there, and besides, Hakkai could think of crazier things to do to Gojyo in real life than Gojyo's imagination could ever produce. But right now, Hakkai _wasn't_ there. That must've been what had woken Gojyo up. _Guess he had to pee_, thought Gojyo, muzzily, running his hand over the rapidly cooling warm spot his friend had left. But there was no sound of water or plumbing, and Hakkai didn't come back.

Gojyo pried his eyes open. They didn't want to cooperate, but he finally got them back on the job. He found that there was a light burning in the kitchen. He couldn't think of any good reason for that, and if Hakkai was facing something bad, Gojyo should be there. Reluctantly he rolled over, got out of bed, and went to find out what Hakkai was up to.

Shit, it was cold tonight. The warmth of the whisky buzz that had kept off the chill on his walk home was long gone. He could almost feel the warmth of the bed reaching out to pull him back under the covers, but he was tougher than that. On bare feet that seemed to be rapidly turning into ice cubes, he crept into the kitchen.

Hakkai was sitting at the table, bathrobe neatly wrapped and tied over his winter pajamas. He'd been up long enough to make a cup of tea, which was steaming, untouched, in front of him. And one look at his face told Gojyo that he'd gone someplace where Gojyo didn't belong. But Gojyo was always wandering into forbidden places. He didn't see any reason to stop now.

"Hakkai?"

No answer. Gojyo wasn't surprised. He propped himself up against the cold, hard counter and wrapped his arms around his bare torso for the illusion of warmth they gave and stood watch over his bedmate. Hakkai's eyes were sunken into his head so you couldn't even tell what color they were, and his mouth was a colorless slash. He hardly seemed to be breathing. Finally, he said "I was back there."

His voice was a dry, low, icy monotone, and if Gojyo didn't already know, pretty much, what the words were, he might've missed them.

"The castle? You dreamed you were back in the castle?"

"Yes. That. The prison."

Hakkai picked up the cup. His hand was shaking, and steaming tea sloshed out onto his bare skin. Gojyo winced. Hakkai didn't seem to feel it, but he set the cup back down untasted. Wisps of steam were curling from the cup and his hand, tendrils winding up into the cold, still air.

"She ... was pregnant. Not like she really was. Farther along. Much farther. Swollen with ... it. Except it wasn't _it_, it was ... . She was in labor. Hundreds of them. Centipedes, scorpions. Legs, venom. Crawling ... crawling out of her ... ."

Hakkai's voice had grown scratchy and painful. His face looked dead, snowy white, and the shadows under his eyes were black and slate green, like bruises.

"She couldn't ... the labor wasn't going fast enough. Even with those hundreds coming out. And she grabbed the knife, and when she stabbed - more of them. From the gash, and from her womb, between her legs. Like some horrible fountain. Just pouring out. Piling up. Covering her. She was screaming, 'Too late, you came too late!' "

Gojyo didn't feel too well himself. He really regretted the beer. Or maybe it was those fried noodle things Jun Li was serving as bar snacks these days. His teeth were chattering too - hard to tell if it was the picture Hakkai was painting or the cold. "Hakkai, b-buddy - it didn't happen like that. What happened - was bad enough. B-but it wasn't like that. You know it wasn't."

He wasn't getting through. He knew he was a terrible speaker. Not like Sanzo who, for all his bluntness, could pick exactly the right word when he needed to. When Hakkai got like this, it was like he'd turned all his enormous willpower, all his mental brilliance, on himself. And whatever was inside the thick skull of Sha Gojyo, street punk, stray cat, school dropout, it wasn't much of a match for Hakkai's brain.

"Thousands ...," whispered Hakkai, as colorless, as dead, and as cold as the air around them. "Over her eyes, in her mouth. They were starting to eat her even as she gave them life ... ."

Fuck, thought Gojyo. He'd just have to get crude.

Hakkai was making another messy and hazardous attempt to do something with the teacup. Gojyo glided over behind him and waited until the cup was safely back on the table (still untasted), then slipped both of his very _very_ cold hands down the neck of Hakkai's pajamas - one over his chest and one over his back.

Hakkai screamed, jumped, and grabbed at him. He managed to snag the hand over his heart and held it there. In the silence after the scream, Gojyo was as still as stone. He could both feel and hear Hakkai's heartbeats, first racing, now slowing, but warm and red and alive, fiercely, hotly alive.

"Gojyo! That was _cold_! How many times have I told you that you should wear more to bed ... ."

Gojyo drew a long, thankful breath, feeling the cold air grow warm in his lungs. A nagging Hakkai was a pain in the ass, but infinitely preferable to a despairing, self-hating Hakkai. "Sorry, buddy."

"You should go back to bed, and warm up under the covers."

Gojyo bent and leaned his cheek on top of Hakkai's hair, feeling it feathery and warm on his skin.

"Think it's too late for that. Didn't you tell me once, blankets only hold in the heat you already got?"

Hakkai sighed, exasperated. It was such a blessedly normal sound that Gojyo smiled, up there where Hakkai couldn't see it.

"Well, then ... Gojyo, back up. I don't want to hit your feet with the chair. I suppose you're barefoot, too ... ."

Hakkai let go of his hand and pivoted the chair out away from the table. As he turned he caught sight of the forlorn, half-spilled cup of tea, stared, and shook his head. Then he slowly untied the bathrobe and held it open. "Come here."

Now Gojyo let him see the smile. He settled into Hakkai's lap - stupid idea, but the chair felt like it would hold - and Hakkai wrapped the robe around both of them, at least as far as it was possible. It was horribly awkward, but Gojyo settled gratefully into what warmth was available. Hakkai sighed again, sounding just tired now, and rested his head against Gojyo's shoulder. When he spoke, Gojyo could feel every syllable as a toasty little puff of air.

"I guess I woke you. I shouldn't ... you don't need to hear things like that. No one does. They're my own problems."

"Nuh-uh. Hakkai, no. Talk, please. Even if it's horrible. If you don't get it out talking, it comes out some other way. And that gets real messy, real fast. Remember? I think I could've lived my whole life perfectly happy, without seeing an umbrella rib coming out of some guy's ... ."

Hakkai gave a little dry laugh that was closer to a cough. "Point taken. But there should be some other way, that isn't so hard on you."

"Heh. There is - isn't there?" Gojyo demonstrated with a wriggle of his hips and a waggle of his eyebrows. The chair creaked ominously but held together. Hakkai smiled up at him sadly and shook his head.

"Usually, I'd say an offer like that from you could raise the dead. I hate to think what that makes me tonight, but ... no, not now."

Well, if he'd been dreaming what Hakkai had been dreaming, he wouldn't have been in the mood either. Gojyo put the eyebrows to work again. "Hey. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Sha Gojyo, Sex God, can actually go one or two days without. Maybe even _three_, if there's a really good reason."

Hakkai's smile got smaller but more genuine. "Really. Well. I didn't know that."

"Yeah. That's how it is. But, uh, don't tell the girls at Jun Li's. They'd be real disappointed."

Hakkai sat up a little straighter and blinked a couple of times. "Ah. I see. They'd become despondent. And then they wouldn't feel compelled to flirt with the other customers as much, which they habitually do, just to attract your attention."

"Yeah. And Jun Li wouldn't sell nearly as much beer, and hardly any whisky."

"And because the amount of money taken in for intoxicating drink at Jun Li's is by far the largest source of tax income in the town, the economy of the town would fail. And thereafter, the economy of the entire region."

"Yeah, for sure. And the whole place would be overrun by no-account youkai from the hills, with no taste and lousy manners. And there wouldn't be any good place to buy silk PJs or jasmine tea. So we're all depending on you, Hakkai-san, to keep your big mouth shut." Gojyo leaned in, nose to nose with him: "Get the picture?"

Hakkai smiled - his proper, smugly satisfied smile. "I've got it," he said, quietly, green eyes looking into red. And Gojyo couldn't be one hundred percent sure what he meant - Hakkai always seemed to be talking about more than one thing at a time - but it seemed to be something good this time.

Gojyo had to look away, then, because he was yawning - with tiredness or with relief, he couldn't say which. Hakkai looked up at the clock. "Heavens, it's a quarter to 5:00, and not getting any warmer. We should go back to bed."

He gently spilled Gojyo out of his lap and picked up the tepid cup of tea as he stood. Gojyo grabbed the dishrag and wiped the spill off the table before his friend could do it. Somehow the cup made it safely into the sink - followed, to Hakkai's disgust, by the dishrag, but he didn't seem inclined to do anything about it just then. They grabbed each other and staggered to the bed, piling in to huddle together in a shivering knot in the middle.

Gradually, the blankets and mattress took on their warmth. Hakkai sighed - a relaxed, comfortable sound this time - and turned on his side. Gojyo curled up behind him, arms around him, and willed himself to stay awake until Hakkai was properly asleep. It felt like forever, but really, it was only moments before the other man's breathing deepened and smoothed out. Gojyo rubbed his face gently in Hakkai's hair, smelling the familiar scent and feeling strangely triumphant. _Me. I did this. I'm not as smart as he is, or as good a talker as Sanzo, or as fast or as strong as that little monkey, but I can do this. Me. Sha Gojyo._

Sex God. Heh.

He closed his own eyes at last and followed his friend down into the warm dark.

 


End file.
